Google Glass as the Ultimate POV Action Camera

Remember when you carried a point and shoot camera along with your cell phone? Me too. A few years ago, digital point and shoots from Canon and Nikon and Sony were everywhere. We all quit carrying them once smartphones hit that good-enough sweet spot. Something similar will inevitably happen to another style of camera that’s exploding in popularity right now: the POV camera.

POV, or point of view, cameras are having a moment right now. GoPro, Drift, Contour and Sony make excellent shooters you can strap to your noggin to capture action in high def. And while there’s been a lot of attention paid to how Google Glass might disrupt the bathroom, I don’t think enough has been paid to how it’s going to alter sports photography.

Look, the camera on Glass is good-not-great right now. It certainly can’t touch the GoPro Hero3, for example. But it’s good enough, and Google already is making the camera that ships in Glass better via software tools. You can bet it’ll have better hardware before it hits the consumer market. And it’s just going to keep on improving.

I wanted to see how Glass stacked up against other action cameras I’ve used. So the other day, on my way to work, I ditched my usual bike glasses for Glass with the windshield lens.

My biggest question going into this was, “Is it dangerous”? (Before setting off, I joked about doing an on-bike Hangout. Now that would be dangerous.) The answer is it’s certainly no more dangerous than any other POV camera I’ve used, and less so than most. That’s because you can start shooting and see your shot without taking your eyes or attention off the task at hand. You can record video with the brief touch of a button or via voice command. There’s no question whether you’re shooting because you can see the video projected on the tiny little screen. You don’t have to listen for a beep that you may or may not hear over wind noise, and you don’t have to check your smartphone to ensure the camera is pointing in the right direction. It’s just dead easy.

No less important than what this adds to your life is what it takes away: A gadget. It’s the same thing that happened with point and shoot cameras once cellphone cameras became “good enough.” When our cameras are built in to our glasses and and goggles, there’s no need to strap one on top of our helmets.

By default, Glass only records 10 second videos — but you can make it go longer, too. We spliced together a series of videos for the long take you see above, but there’s no reason I couldn’t have shot one for as long as my battery (or remaining storage space) allowed.

There’s a lot more needed before Google Glass becomes the ultimate POV camera–like a semi-terrestrial price tag, and a far more ruggedized enclosure. But it’s clear that this is how we’ll shoot action video in the very near future. Cameras worn on our faces, not our heads, are going to win.